SOURCE: "Despatches of Hernando Cortés" in The North American Review, Vol. LVII, No. 121, October, 1843, pp. 459–90.

The following excerpt provides a detailed historical overview of Cortés's expedition to Mexico from 1518 to 1524, as well as extracts from Cortés 's letters to the Emperor.

As the memoirs of a hero written by himself, the work before us possesses an interest of the same character with that of the Anabasis of Xenophon and the Commentaries of Cœsar; and though the Spanish leader may not claim the high literary rank which the Greek and Roman generals have attained as classical historians, we are not to conclude that Cortés has any occasion, even as an author, to deprecate criticism. The despatches possess the attractions of romance with the certainty of truth. Compared with his great rival in the conquest of American kingdoms, Cortés enjoyed advantages of which Pizarro...